


dance till dawn

by maybemochas



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Dance, F/F, F/M, Gen, Keith and Shiro are Siblings, M/M, More tags to be added, Multi, Texting, allura and lance work at a boba cafe, allura and pidge are like unbiological sisters, already engaged shadam, keith and pidge are hella best friends, keith is an art major, lance is a double major studying english and gen ed, lotor and his squad arent going to be evil™, pidge starts off having long hair still but THEY THEM PRONOUNS MY DUDES, plaxum is addressed as lexie, plaxum lance and shay are siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 13:25:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15950261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybemochas/pseuds/maybemochas
Summary: It all starts with Professor Iverson's history class, a split cup of coffee, and a fateful study session that gives Keith the final nudge he needs to finally go to the dance studio the Castle of Lions.By day Keith is a stressed college student who wears old hoodies, glasses, and can't be bothered to socialize or get a decent haircut. By night he's the red lion, free of his life, his past, and his fears.Between his new friend Lance at college and the flirty man at club Voltron that goes by sharpshooter, Keith finds that his world is about to get a lot more exciting, for better or for worse.





	dance till dawn

**Author's Note:**

> I recommend reading the tags beforehand to avoid any confusion. Enjoy!

It was only the first week of classes and Lance already wanted to die. He knew that his third year would be busy but he wasn’t prepared for this. 22 fucking units. Screw his passion, no double major was worth this hell.

His mama had made a good point that he could do most of his GE’s online over summer and save time and money, but he really liked the classes at Garrison. He wanted to avoid taking too many of his classes online and missing out on the student experience, at least, that had been his mindset during summer.

Now that he was in the midst of his choice, he wanted to go back in time and kick himself in the face. All the coffee and sugar in the world was barely enough to get him through all his classes, his job, and his practices not to mention the piles of endless homework.

To add the cherry on top of his hypothetical stress sundae, his 8 AM world history lecture was with _Keith._

If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t hate Keith. He just hated that every freaking semester the guy just haaad to be in at least one of his classes. They weren’t even the same major to his knowledge, so how?! 

Keith made a point to always sit in the back, never talk to anyone, and somehow get every question right. He always had top scores, beating Lance time after time. And that pissed Lance off. He worked hard and studied his ass off. Sure being second best is still amazing, but being second best to the same person every single time hurt his ego badly.

Lance thought he had finally caught a break last semester when he finally didn’t have any classes with his self-declared rival. Apparently that was too good to be true, because said break was horribly short lived.

When he walked into class, the first fateful Monday morning, his eyes immediately landed on that all too familiar mullet in the back row.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” Lance huffed as he quickly grabbed a syllabus off of the stack on the teacher’s desk and marched his way up the steps to the back of the room. He scooted his way past the chairs and plopped his bag down loudly and he looked up at Keith who was seated just a row behind him.

Keith looked up from his phone at the sudden noise to see Lance glaring at him with his hands on his hips and a frustrated look on his face.

Keith’s face scrunched up in a mix of irritation and confusion, “Uh… can I help you?”

His voice was gravely and it sounded like he had barely woken up before coming to the early morning class, and if someone pointed out that Lance noticed how cute Keith’s face looked when his nose scrunched up like that he would deny it with his entire being.

Lance tapped his foot and nodded dramatically, “Uh, _yeah_ actually. You can help me by dropping this class.”

Keith didn’t move for a moment other than his eyebrows lifting in surprise, “Excuse me?”

Was he making an ass of himself? Yes. Did he care? Also yes. But Lance was too caffeine pumped and sleep deprived to completely care at the moment.

“You’re always following me everywhere! And you keep one upping me literally all the time and it’s annoying man!”

Keith crossed his arms and glared down at Lance who was definitely catching the eye of some of the other students who arrived early, but the teacher didn’t seem to care at all.

“Listen I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re kinda being a dick so back off, ok? I’m not changing classes just because you have an inferiority issue or something. Besides, I don’t even know who you are.”

Lance’s jaw dropped at this before he threw his arms up, 

“Don’t even know me? It’s me, Lance. Lance Mcclain! I literally have had a class with you every year. My scores are always just below yours, don’t you know? Keith and Lance, neck and neck. I’m literally your academic rival dude.”

If Lance hadn’t been making such a scene, Keith might have felt a little bad for not remembering the face of someone who claimed to be around him so often. Even if the guy was the type to draw attention, which he clearly was, Keith just kept his head down and took notes.

He took a deep breath and mentally reminded himself, _Patience yields focus._

He was getting tired and uncomfortable with the attention so Keith just gritted out, 

“I’m sorry man, I don’t really have any friends in any of my classes and I prefer to just focus on the teacher and study. I swear I’m just here to end up in a lifetime of debt and get a fancy piece of paper that says I can do stuff like any other student here. So could you please back off now?”

Lance was taken aback by the sudden shift in the conversation’s mood. Keith mentally smirked at how easy it was to throw the other boy off, but his main intention was just to get the discussion over with. He may have a temper, but Shiro had drilled into him growing up that not all fights are worth the hassle.

When Lance was silent for long enough, Keith took that as his own personal victory and went back to his phone. He figured that things were over now and the guy would leave the friendless kid with glasses alone but instead was startled by the sudden movement next to him as Lance plopped down in the empty seat next to him.

Keith blinked and stared at Lance as the other boy casually got his supplies out as if they hadn’t just been arguing two seconds ago. “Uh….?”

Lance just shrugged as he flipped a fresh notebook open and began to date the page and write his name on it, 

“You’re still my rival and I’m still sick of seeing your ugly mullet all the time, but I’ll be damned if I let you be friendless.”

Keith couldn’t tell which threw him off more, the fact that this guy somehow hated him but also wanted to be his friend or the comment on his hair.

“I don’t have a mullet.”

Lance snorted and shook his head with a coy grin as he kept writing, “Sure you don’t.”

Keith frowned and opened his mouth to retort when the teacher cleared his throat and began teaching the class. Keith looked up and realized that the room had filled with students and it was already 8AM. He hadn’t even noticed the time go by.

Professor Iverson skipped over the syllabus and had unprepared students scrambling as he already started the lecture, which Lance was surprisingly prepared for.

Keith pulled out his notebook and glanced at Lance and whispered, “How did you..?”

Lance flicked his eyes at Keith for a moment before returning his gaze to the front, the slide already changed to a new page of information.

“Had Professor Iverson freshman year. The guy is horrible. This isn’t an advanced class for nothing. GE or not, if he’s the one teaching, we gotta stay on our toes, at least during the first few weeks.”

Keith nodded absentmindedly as he rushed to catch up on his notes, peering over to Lance’s page every now and then and hoping the other boy didn’t notice.

\--------

Despite the strange first day, when Wednesday morning came by it was almost as if their relationship had been thrown back to square one. Key word being almost. 

Lance was still way too overzealous for Keith’s comfort and Keith was still too withdrawn for Lance’s taste. Yet, despite their bickering, Keith couldn’t deny that Lance was a lot friendlier than before. 

Whenever Keith fell behind in writing notes due to the room being so much larger than he was used to, and his horrid eyesight, Lance would let him read off of his notes. Despite all his jabs and complaints, Keith noticed that Lance would always try to make Keith smile at least once a class, even if he tended to fail more often than succeed.

He could tell that Lance was trying to become his friend, but it still rubbed him the wrong way. He had kept to himself at school since freshman year of highschool. So having someone so, Lance, just suddenly appear was uncomfortable for him.

Keith admitted that there were moments where he felt ok with Lance, as small as they were, but more often than less he just ended up brushing him off. 

Which is how Pidge ended up on the receiving end of Lance’s complaints a week later when they met up for coffee.

“I don’t get it! No matter what I do that guy still acts like someone stuck a stick up his ass.”

Pidge rolled their eyes and took a sip of their mocha, “Look dude, it’s obvious he doesn’t want anything to do with you. Why not just let it go and save everyone the headache?”

Lance glared down at his extra sugary caramel macchiato before he picked it up roughly and started to sip at it unnecessarily loudly, 

“Fuck no. This is a challenge Pidge, and if Mr. Mullet thinks he can outplay me then he has another thing coming.”

Pidge’s phone vibrated with a text and they pulled it out and started typing without looking up at Lance,

“Whatever you say. I bet you just have a big fat gay crush on Keith.”

Lance choked on his drink and exclaimed,

“Fuck no! Besides I’m _bi_ , not gay. There’s a difference Pidge. A difference!”

A few customers shot looks at the energetic student, but it was nothing that he wasn’t used to. He tended to draw attention with his energy and he gave up being embarrassed by his flamboyance in public years ago. 

Pidge raised an unimpressed look to his outburst, which Lance simply pouted at before something dawned on him.

“Wait a second, how did you know his name?”

Pidge shrugged as they slipped their phone back into their pocket, “He may or may not be my friend.”

Lance’s jaw dropped before he slammed his hands on the table, earning more annoyed glances from the customers nearby,

“And you didn’t think to say anything? I’ve never even seen you two together on campus before and we’ve been here for two whole years!”

“We don’t have any classes together. Also, we knew each other before Garrison.” Pidge stated simply, growing bored of the conversation topic.

“Besides, you and I have had like, one class together and that was out of sheer luck. The only reason why we see each other so much is because we plan it.” They pointed out.

Lance mumbled bitterly to himself about Pidge always being right just as Hunk and Allura stepped into the shop. Pidge spotted them and waved them over, and much to their relief the topic was dropped for the time being.

\--------

It took three more classes together and accidently spilling his coffee all over his chest when he was late to the lecture, causing the entire class, including Keith to crack up, but Lance had finally done it. He broke down the boy’s barriers and had finally gotten to see a few of his true colors.

Keith had slowly but surely begun to open up. To most, it would seem as if nothing had changed, but Lance wasn’t like most people. He picked up on how Keith saved the seat next to him for Lance now. When he had pointed it out Keith flat out denied it, but every class without a doubt, Keith’s bag would be on the seat, holding Lance’s place.

When Lance would make jokes or draw silly pictures in his textbook during lecture, instead of ignoring him like before, Keith would occasionally crack a smile or if Lance was really lucky he would let out a soft laugh under his breath.

It wasn’t until the teacher assigned the first major essay assignment that Lance was really able to make a solid move. He could tell that despite his usual academic prowess, even Keith seemed a bit perplexed at the 20 page essay they’d been assigned to finish in only a week.

As the students all started shuffling out of the room Lance began to pack his bag and asked hopefully, 

“So Iverson _did_ say that we could work in pairs since it’s such a large assignment. The guy is a dick but at least he’s not the devil. Did you want to partner up?”

Keith paused for a moment, as if he was being presented the choice to jump off a plane or a quick painless death before he sighed and nodded. 

“Yeah, that’d probably be wise. My brother and his fiance have been driving me up a wall with all their wedding stuff at home, so chances are I wouldn’t be able to focus there anyways.”

Lance internally did a victory dab in his head as he smiled and pulled out his phone, 

“Lit! Put your number in here and we can figure out when to meet up to work on it. Does the campus library work? They have cheaper coffee than Starbucks and I need that shit to survive such a huge paper.”

Keith quickly added his number to Lance’s phone and picked up his bag, “Yeah sounds fine. I’ll see you later then.”

Keith rushed out after that, but Lance wasn’t too thrown off by it. He grinned as he looked down at his phone and headed out. 

Before leaving the room he changed Keith’s contact name to Mullet before shoving his phone in his bag and heading to his next class.

\--------

They hadn’t texted much outside of planning a time to meet up at the library and Lance hounding Keith to add him on snapchat. 

To his horror, Keith revealed he didn’t have one, since he’d only have a couple friends and his brother to add, which resulted in Lance sending Keith a series of dramatic texts, flooding his phone until Keith finally caved and made one just to shut Lance up.

They had their history class together three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and agreed to meet up after classes on Wednesday.

The first hour went smoothly as they sat at a desk with their laptops and coffees and discussed how they would outline the essay and split up the work. Eventually Lance got distracted though as he watched Keith take a sip of his coffee while he scanned the assignment prompt for anything they missed.

“I can’t believe you drink your coffee black.”

Keith rolled his eyes and took a large gulp just to gross out Lance before tipping his cup towards Lance’s and countering,

“Hey I don’t call you out for literally ordering diabetes in a cup. You can respect my bitter bliss if I can keep quiet about that sugary crap.”

Lance opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it after pausing for a moment to reconsider. 

“Ok yeah, that’s valid.”

Keith smirked at the small victory before setting down his coffee to stretch his arms over his head.

“Everything looks good, I think we’re done setting up. Just gotta check out some of the books we picked out and we should be good.”

Lance cheered, quiet enough not to get shushed by the librarian for the 100th time. They both started to pack up when Keith noticed Lance bouncing his leg and biting his lip nervously.

Keith considered asking what was wrong but Lance unknowingly beat him to it as he drawled out awkwardly, 

“Soooo, I don’t know if you know this but, I’m uh? Kinda in this dance club thing, which probably sounds cheesy as hell but Pidge mentioned you dance too and well…”

Lance pulled a flyer out of his bag and slammed it onto the table, louder and harder than he had meant to, earning an irritated glare from the librarian.

Keith looked at the paper and his hand tightened painfully around the strap of his bag. He knew this logo, hell, _he knew this flyer_. It was the exact same one on their fridge at home that his brother had been pestering him about for months.

Uncomfortable tightness clutched at his chest as he looked at the paper. He hadn’t been paying attention to what Lance was saying anymore but he could put two and two together and realized that he invited him to go to the club.

“That’s uh… I’ll have to think about it. I gotta go.”

Keith grabbed the paper and stuffed it into his bag, not wanting to completely reject Lance who had a mixture of hurt and surprise on his face. 

He felt bad for making his.. friend? make that kind of face, especially when Lance didn’t even know what was wrong about the club, so he quickly added,

“I just remembered that I promised my brother I’d help with something. I’ll consider it Lance. I’ll see you in class on Friday.”

He added playfully, feeling slightly lighter, “Don’t forget to do your part of the paper.”

Lance shook off the weird moment and returned the jest with a smirk, “Right baack at you Mullet.”

\--------

_“I’m just going to go in long enough to tell Shiro I actually went.”_

Keith repeated that in his head like a mantra as he sped walked towards the address on the flyer. His hands were shoved in his pockets and he could only imagine how tense he looked off of how tight his shoulders felt.

Between Adam’s teasing and Shiro’s brotherly concern, Keith would rather be anywhere than their apartment on Friday night. Plus if he could say he finally went to the club Shiro had been telling him to go to, then maybe his brother would drop that particular subject.

Dancing had run in the family in a way. Their mother, Krolia, used to do ballet when she was in high school and it was clear that even if she didn’t dance anymore she still had the grace and strength of a goddess that she carried with her naturally through her everyday life.

Shiro used to dance for the enjoyment of it before he went to the army, but now it was more a form of rehab/a way for him to unwind.

Keith remembers the day that Shiro first told him about the club. Said it was run by Allura’s father and uncle and that when he returned from duty he wanted to take Keith there.

He had actually been excited about it back then but then Shiro came back different. 

Sure physically he had changed and he was still the same loving brother that he’s always been but… he flinches at loud noises now. He gets quiet and closes himself off on rainy days. He has nightmares. He has triggers. He can’t go to the club anymore.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to or that he’s tried and something went wrong. He just knows himself and where he’s at. He knows going into a place with so much noise and bright flashing colors will just set him off and he can’t bear to show that side of him to others. As much as he loves the place, he knows that mentally he isn’t ready to go back yet and has made peace with it.

Despite all of that, he’s still heavily insisted on Keith going. Keith doesn’t understand what’s so great about just another underground dance club or why it’s so important to Shiro that Keith goes, but at least he’ll be able to cross it off his list finally.

Keith is now standing in front of the Castle of Lions. Despite it’s fancy name it’s actually pretty shabby at first glance. It’s a small building that looks like its been there longer than Keith has been alive. 

Through the window he can see a dance studio on the left. As he walks through the front door he finds himself in a small waiting room, peeling light teal walls adding to the whole “old family owned business” vibe Keith was getting.

He looked around in confusion at the lack of people. He was all alone in the building and he wondered if he got the wrong place, however as he looked around a bulletin board covered in flyers and pictures caught his attention.

Flyers for dance competitions were pinned all over the board, some overlapping others. Dates were circled with sharpie and names were written all over. 

It looked like people had circled stuff for each other, added notes suggesting certain people join, and lots of sign ups. The pictures looked like they were of different classes. There were pictures of kids, teens, adults, all doing different dances and all smiling brightly.

The sound of footsteps caught his attention and Keith turned around to see someone from the back of the place walking into the office. The man went in and stood behind the front desk as he smiled fondly at the board before greeting Keith.

“Well hello there m’boy! What brings you in tonight?”

Keith walked up to the man as he twirled his bright orange mustache between his fingers and placed the crumpled flyer on the counter.

“I was given this by a classmate and my brother has wanted me to come for a long time. Do you know anything about it?”

The man’s eyes glinted as he picked up the flyer and hummed, “Why yes, as a matter of fact I do! You’re talking about Voltron. It’s been a while since we’ve have a new face join our club on their own.”

Keith squirmed awkwardly as the man seemed to exam him, as if determining if Keith was someone that could be trusted before the man nodded to himself.

“Alrighty then m’boy! Follow me towards the back, things are already full swing downstairs. The name’s Coran by the way, you are?”

Keith waited a moment for Coran to exit the office and meet him in the hallway before he introduced himself, “Keith Kogane.”

Coran hummed thoughtfully for a moment before a lightbulb went off in his head, “Kogane? As in Takashi Shirogane’s younger step brother?”

Keith nodded, “Yup. He’s the one that wanted me to come here.”

Coran hummed and looked at Keith with a wistful smile, “How is he? We haven’t seen him around since..”

His sentence tapered off, but Keith understood just fine.

“He’s doing well. He and Adam are still engaged and planning the wedding one step at a time. Although at this rate it’ll take them a year just to pick the invitation cards, let alone send them.”

Coran chuckled, “That sounds about right. Shiro was always a people pleaser and young Adam would tend to make a decision only to find three other options and then be back at square one with making a choice. The first month he was here he had a new costume almost every week!”

Keith titled his head in confusion as they reached the door in the back, “Costume?”

Coran just smiled knowingly and put his hand on the doorknob, “You’ll see what I mean when you get down there. I think you’ll quite enjoy it.”

He paused for a moment before opening the door, the sound of music from below suddenly flooding into the once quiet hall.

Keith blinked in shock at the volume. Just how professional was their soundproofing? He hadn’t heard a thing until the door had opened. He couldn’t tell if he should be impressed or if he should run.

He thanked Coran before stepping forward and walking down the spiralling metal black staircase. He made it about halfway down before he froze on the spot. The club was amazing. The room was huge. It had to be at least three times the size of the actual studio above.

There was a DJ stage in the back, a bar to the right, some smaller rooms off to the left, and a full sized dance floor with plenty of people dancing to the beat and pulsing lights in the center.

The thing that caught his eye though was the people themselves. They all had face paint. Some had paint all over their bodies, or had glowing paint. But everyone was decorated and dancing with such an energy that he had never seen firsthand before.

He was speechless.

“Keith!!”

Keith snapped out of his daze as he looked down to see the familiar form of his best friend heading his way.

Pidge, wore a black loose tank top over their binder and dark green cargo pants that looked like loose jeans. They had their favorite black baseball cap on their head backwards, the one with the green coding on it. Their glasses had been swapped out for contacts and their hair had been pulled back into a fluffy ponytail, fully exposing their face to reveal a messy green mask painted over their eyes. The green was accented with black and white stars that made the golden color of their eyes pop.

He made his way down the rest of the stairs and met them on the floor. The music was loud, but not unbearably so to the point where you couldn’t hear someone standing in front of you. When he got closer he could see the front of the shirt had 4C3 written on it in splattered green glow in the dark paint.

“4C3…?” Keith asked as he made out the print.

Pidge looked down at their shirt and grinned, “It’s ace, but in nerd. It’s my dance name.”

Keith looked at Pidge confused, “Dance name?”

They grabbed his hand and dragged him towards a room off to the side, 

“Yeah! Everyone has one. This place is like a modern masquerade ball. Even if some of the people here know who others are, we all cover our faces and go by a stage name.”

They guided him into the room before shutting the door behind them, cutting the sound of the club down to a muffled beat. Keith looks around to see a blonde girl inside sprawled out on a tattered sofa scrolling through her phone casually.

She waved casually to the two as they entered, “Sup.”

Pidge gestured to the woman proudly before flopping backwards onto the other couch, careful not to smudge their makeup.

“This is Nyma! She’s like, the best artist in the world.” They paused for a second before adding, “Well make up artist. _You’re_ the best artist.”

One second Nyma was lazily draped over the couch and on her phone and the next she was up and alert, examining his face with a thoughtful frown. Before he could argue she plucked his glasses off of his face and tossed them to Pidge.

Keith reached for them, but Nyma pulled him away with a giggle. Pidge tossed him a small box with contact lenses inside.

“Shiro gave me the heads up you were coming and gave me these. No one gets to hide Nyma’s work and trust me, you won’t want to.”

Keith barely blinked before Nyma had him sitting on a stool set by a chaotically messy vanity. 

The station was splattered with hundreds of blurred, colorful stains and different brushes and containers of paint were all piled randomly, some threatening to fall over with even the slightest disturbance.

As Nyma hummed happily and stuck some hairpins in her mouth, Keith let his eyes roam over the mirror, studying each of the overlapping post it notes, all covered with different sketch designs of face paints and costumes.

“This is incredible…” Keith murmured in awe as his fingers lightly brushed over an unfinished sketch of a lion tattoo.

Nyma grinned as she pulled his hair back into a ponytail, “Thanks! As much as I love this place I’m hoping to become a pro someday. Hollywood better watch out, shit won’t be the same once I set foot there.”

Keith chuckled as Pidge worked on touching up their own face paint in the background, “I’d believe that. They won’t know what hit them.”

The next ten minutes passed by in comfortable silence as Nyma worked her magic and Pidge watched over her shoulder, swinging their legs back and forth and grinning every time they got a long enough peak to see the artist’s progress.

“Holy shit dude, you look amazing.” 

Keith did his best not to move too much but looked their way, “Really? Can I see?”

Nyma broke her concentration to flick her gaze to Keith’s for a split second as she said, “Hell no. I’m not done yet, gotta add the final touches first.”

She stood up and walked to her station and grabbed a few brushes and containers of red and silver glitter with a cheeky smirk on her lips.

Keith put up his hands and shook his head, “Uh uh. Sorry, glitter is not my thing. I don’t sparkle.”

Pidge hopped down from their perch on the nearby dresser and grinned devilishly as they ran behind him and grabbed his shoulders to keep him in place so Nyma could finish her latest masterpiece. 

“Sorry dude, no one gets out of a full paint job. Trust me you’ll actually appreciate this.”

Keith pouted as Nyma thanked Pidge and gave them a quick cheek smooch before dipping her brush in some face glue and getting back to work on Keith’s face. 

After a few minutes, some glitter accidently getting in Keith’s eye because the small specks caused him to sneeze unexpectedly and a few final touches, Nyma finally stood back and beamed proudly as she admired his face.

“Not that it’s news, but it’s official. I’m amazing.”

Pidge finally released Keith and pulled out their phone to take a picture of his face, “You look so badass.”

Keith braced himself as he stood and dusted some of the stray glitter off of his jeans before looking into the vanity mirror. His jaw dropped at the unrecognizable face staring back at him.

His eyes were accented with striking lines of black that popped out on top of the red mask of paint that Nyma laid for a base. Intricate lines and swirls of silver glitter with specks of gold overlaying the black strokes mimicked something of a mix of a masquerade mask and the marks of a lion’s face. 

“Holy shit…” He whispered as he lifted a hand to his face, completely mesmerized with the details.

Nyma smacked his hand with a paint brush quickly, “Ah-ah! You’ll smudge it! The paint is waterproof so sweating won’t be an issue but don’t go touching it silly.”

Keith grimaced as he rubbed his hand, “Sorry.”

He glanced at himself one more time before smiling softly at Nyma, “Thank you though. It really is amazing.”

Nyma blushed slightly at the genuine gratitude and huffed as she crossed her arms, “Alright enough mushy stuff. Get out there and do your thing!”

\--------

Before Pidge and Keith headed back out to the club’s floor, Nyma rearranged the hairpins so his bangs fell over his forehead without covering up the paint and insisted on him keeping his hair tied back.

They spot Hunk off to the side talking to a girl with a camera and head towards them. Hunk looks up at them and gasps,

“Oh my god man, you look so cool!”

Keith blushes, not used to having this much attention on his and rubs his arm, “Thanks man, you do too.”

And he does. Hunk has a much simpler paint job, yellow with honeycombs but he makes it work way better than most could, similar to how well he pulls off his signature orange headband.

Hunk smiles and gestures to the girl standing beside him, Keith swears he can see actual stars in her eyes as she steps forward. 

“This is my girlfriend Shay. She’s a third year photographer student at Altea Academy.”

Keith waves and smiles at her and Shay lifts her camera shyly as she asks, “It’s nice to meet you. If it’s ok, could I take a few pictures of you?”

Keith closed in on himself a bit more, seriously unaccustomed to the attention. He bit his lip and looked at Hunk who smiled gently at him and nodded before exhaling and nodding to the hopeful girl.

“Sure. Go ahead.”

If Shay had stars in her eyes before, she had an entire galaxy of excitement in her expression now. 

“Oh wonderful! I will go ask Matt to put on something you can dance to.”

Shay ran off before Keith could stop her in protest. He looked over to Hunk who had a sheepish look on his face as he apologized, 

“Sorry, she takes photos of people her dancing a lot. I think she forgot you’re not used to this. If it’s too much I can-”

Keith shook his head and cut him off, “It’s… fine. Don’t worry about it man.”

Pidge glanced at him, slightly taken aback at Keith’s willingness. They knew how cut off he was and how much he preferred his privacy, although they had been in a similar position with Shay themself once. 

No one can say no to someone so pure. Pidge had tried once. Needless to say, one sad look and Pidge caved.

Keith watched Shay as she looked over a list of songs and exchanged words with the DJ. He had to squint but let out a small laugh as he recognized Pidge’s older brother Matt to be said DJ. 

There was another guy up there with a splash of blue across his eyes that matched his sleeveless top. The guy had a slim swimmers body, but even from this far away Keith could make out the curves of defined muscles on his arms.

Keith inhaled sharply as the guy laughed at something, his smile as bright as his white cargo shorts. He shook his head and scolded himself for getting so easily distracted.

When he recognized that the three had picked out a song, Keith took a moment to get a feel for his surroundings before the music would change. 

They were off to the side so luckily everyone’s attention was focused elsewhere and he had quite a bit of room to move freely. If he faced the wall that Pidge and Hunk were standing by then he’d be able to ignore the rest of the people behind him and Shay would have a pretty good backdrop of the club lights.

Just as Shay made it back to the group, the music reached its end and began to fade into the next track. Keith recognized it instantly and felt himself loosen up as he closed his eyes and focused. He honed all his energy into the music, letting the sounds of the crowd fade to the back of his mind.

_I’ve been hearing symphonies…_

_Before all I heard was silence…_

_A rhapsody for you and me…_

_And every melody is timeless…_

Keith’s eyes snapped open as he began to move, his feet tapped across the floor lightly and his hips moved with sharp, directed pops. His movements flowed naturally between quick, decisive flicks to smooth, gentle motions.

As the music transitioned to airy synth chords, Keith closed his eyes and let his body move like water, a gentle smile ghosted on his lips. He opened his eyes as he spun and couldn’t help but grin at the look on Pidge’s face, knowing and impressed, in stark comparison to Hunk who looked like he was ready to lose his shit. 

He chuckled as he knelt down before gracefully sweeping his arm and standing to kick his leg up high, letting the motion naturally roll his body back before gliding back up, ready for the music to pick it’s beat back up.

Despite the fact that he knew he was being watched, he couldn’t bring himself to care. As he moved to the beat, he couldn’t wipe the grin off his face as the music took control, becoming one with his movements.

Once the beat dropped he felt himself completely let go. The music pulsed through him as he moved freely to the beat. When the drop ended and the vocalist came back in, Keith let himself relax. 

His lungs were on fire and his cheeks hurt from smiling so hard. As he caught his breath he couldn’t help but laugh lightly. He hadn’t felt that way when dancing in ages. It didn’t compare to his private practice. Not by a long shot.

He looked over to the small group just in time to catch sight of a small green blur before Pidge’s body crashed into him. Whatever breath he had regained was instantly knocked out of him as they tackled him and beamed up at him,

“Dude that was so good! I haven’t seen you dance in a long time but you sure as hell haven’t shown me anything like that before!”

Keith coughed and patted on his best friend’s back, “Pidge. Can’t breathe.”

Pidge jumped back and bounced excitedly on their feet. 

“Well I trust you’ll be returning next week, correct?”

Keith looked over his shoulder to see the woman he recognized instantly as Shiro’s best friend Allura walking towards them. 

She gives him a quick hug before pulling back and looking at him expectantly. Keith realized she must have seen him dancing before she came over. He briefly wonders how many people were watching him without him noticing but decides to quickly push that thought out of his head before he has a panic attack.

“I…”

His eyes flick between Pidge, Hunk, and Allura. All of them are looking at him with their own personal brand of hope. Shay is the only one in their small group not paying attention because she’s still wrapped up in gushing over the photos on her camera.

Keith sighs, “I don’t really have a choice do I.”

Allura and Pidge cheered before Pidge and Hunk gave each other a celebratory fist bump. Keith groaned, but couldn’t help smiling at the small group. It wouldn’t hurt to try coming back again.

\--------

Lance had been feeling good. He had gotten closer to Keith, had a really good shift at the cafe today with his boss Allura, and to top it all off he got an email approving him for a scholarship that would take a couple thousand dollars off of his student loans. His family was understandable as ecstatic as he was.

He had danced for a few hours with Lexie and Hunk until Shay arrived at the club with her camera ready to take pictures as she proudly showed off all the lenses and back up sd cards she had prepared for the night.

Lance waved the two off and headed off to the bar when he saw Lexie had started dancing with a cute girl he’d seen her flirting with for a few weeks now. He smiled and winked at his sister, wishing her good luck before leaving the dance floor.

He ordered a water bottle and made his way to the DJ stand. It was his favorite place at Voltron. 

He would go up on stage and hang out with Matt every week. They’d pick out songs together sure, but his favorite part was the view. He could see the whole floor from the stage, and being up there made him understand why Matt loved it so much.

When Matt was up on that stage, the world was in his hands. Lance loved watching the way Matt worked his magic, setting the mood, playing songs that reflected the aura of the crowd, and the way he made the lights dance vividly with the music.

Lance had gone up to the stage hoping he’d be able to spot Keith in the crowd, but after a half hour he had gotten completely distracted with the life of the crowd below, completely forgetting about his hopes that his classmate would make an appearance.

He was enjoying watching a particularly beautiful couple dance with each other in sync as if they were two halves of the same person when Shay climbed up on stage and joined them. 

She placed her hands on her knees and leaned down so Matt and Lance could hear her, considering this was the loudest spot in the club.

“I need to put in a song request for the next track! I found my muse and I gotta take pictures while the iron is still hot!”

Lance chuckled as Shay’s way of requesting a song while Matt pulled out a sheet with a list of requestable songs. The two started looking through songs, discussing which would have the right spark for her project when Lance’s eye caught on one of his favorite “new”ish songs.

When he pointed to it Matt nodded enthusiastically and Shay clapped her hands together excitedly.

“That’ll be perfect guys, thank you!” She gave them both a quick hug before hurrying off the stage to get ready before the music changed.

Lance watched her fondly as she rushed towards the side of the room. He couldn’t be happier that his best friend and younger sister had ended up together. They were too far away for him to make out their faces entirely, but even from where Lance was sitting on the stage, he could see the way Hunk perked up when he saw Shay returning.

Lance debated heading over to the group but decided he’d wait until after the song so Shay could focus and he wouldn’t accidentally step in the way. The music began to transition and Lance left Matt to sit on the edge of the stage so he was close enough to have an unblocked view.

He watched the group wondering if it would be Pidge or Hunk that would start dancing when suddenly a flash of red caught his eye.

There was a man with a beautiful glittering mask painted over his eyes that Lance immediately recognized to be Nyma’s work standing in front of his friends and sister. He was only still for a split second before bursting to life with the music.

The dance was snappy and smooth and it looked so beautifully natural. 

Lance gasped as the man turned his way long enough for him to see his face as he moved to the music. The rest of the club melted away and just for a moment time froze and all Lance could see was the dancer. 

His shirt lifted off his body briefly, flashing his toned muscles, his hair was tied back revealing the intricate details of his mask, glimmering with a mix of glitter and sweat, and the most beautiful and relaxed smile was painted on his lips as his eyes closed and he let the music take him.

Lance had only a second to commit the image to memory as the world around him crashed back into him full speed, but that second felt like an eternity. Before he knew it the man had stopped dancing and the music had already changed.

He had been so dazed he didn’t even realize that Allura had walked over to the group or that he had lost track of time so easily. He saw the man wipe sweat off his brow with his shirt as he talked to the group, exposing his muscles again and Lance felt his entire face heat up.

He couldn’t see himself but he knowingly hopped off the stage quickly, hoping no one noticed his face was as red as the paint on the mystery dancer’s face.

He needed some air. He’d have to ask his friends later who that guy was.

\-------- 

The next day Lance had an eight hour shift at the boba cafe so Pidge and Hunk decided to study there instead of at the school. The cafe was relatively quiet and after the rush hour had died off, the atmosphere was perfectly mellow and enjoyable.

Allura began to restock the shelves with sweets as Lance grabbed a washcloth and began wiping down tables. As he got closer to his friends he slipped into their conversation with ease.

“Shay sent me a snapchat of some of the pictures she’s been editing from last night. They’re so fucking incredible. I can’t wait for her to post them, I can only imagine how good they look when they’re not sent through a shitty filtered app.” Hunk gushed.

Lance chuckled and Pidge rolled their eyes playfully, “I can’t tell if you’re gushing harder about the pictures or your girlfriend. Love is so gross.”

Lance flicked a bit of water at Pidge as Hunk just shrugged and looked lovingly at his phone as he texted his girlfriend.

“Don’t knock it till you try it little pidgeon.”

Pidge made gagging noises at Lance’s comment before giving up the act and sipping their Vietnamese coffee. 

Lance continued to wipe down a nearby table, checking over his shoulder every now and then to determine if Allura would care much if he sat down and took a break for a couple hours as he asked, 

“Are they the pictures of that guy from last night? I didn’t get close enough to see his face all that well but Nyma did an amazing job as usual. I hella want to see the pictures, he looked incredible.”

Pidge squinted at Lance in thought as if they were connecting puzzle pieces together as they asked, 

“You didn’t recognize him?”

Lance shook his head as he finally determined Allura wasn’t paying enough attention to notice his unprompted break,

“Nah, never seen him around the club before. I was hoping that Keith would come but I never ended up seeing him around. That new guy was really hot though, so I’m glad I at least got to see him dance to make up for it.”

An evil grin spread on Pidge’s face while Hunk tilted his head in confusion at Lance’s statement.

“Wait man, Keith was-”

Pidge grabbed their drink and quickly knocked their knee into the table hard enough to knock Hunk’s cup over, resulting in the man stopping his sentence and diving for it as he exclaimed, 

“My boba!”

Pidge and Lance laughed at the small scene, both of them knowing that with the way the cups are sealed, Hunk would only be losing a few drops at most. Before Hunk could recover where he was in the conversation, Pidge took over and said,

“But yeah, I’d say give Keith some time. You said you both have a lot on your plate academically right? He was probably just busy that night or needed some down time. I’m sure you’ll see him there eventually, I wouldn’t push him about it right now.”

Lance hummed thoughtfully as he wiped up the small mess that they had created on the floor, missing Hunk and Pidge shooting each other looks. He remembered how Keith had reacted in the library and realized that it must be a touchy subject.

“Yeah that’s fair I guess.. I’ll lay off a bit for now. It would be more fun there with him though.”

As the conversation shifted towards other things, Lance let his mind wander as images of the black and red mystery man flooded back to him. The way he moved, the way he smiled...

He wondered if he’d see him at the club again. 

He really hoped he would.

**Author's Note:**

> And there you have it! It took two years of putting it off for me to finally put my fingers to the keys but the first chapter has finally been published. I'll be trying to post chapters once a month at the very least. They'll be fairly large chapters so they'll be worth the wait. <3
> 
> If you have any choreography or song requests/suggestions feel free to drop a comment. I'd love to include music that you guys enjoy as well!
> 
> Keith's dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvpNkLF9Ntk


End file.
